Five Years of Themes
=I. Themes for the Chronicle = A. Year One: May 2013 to Apr 2014-Bringing it together, setting the "normal" We've had great success developing Covenant structures in our first Chronicle; now it's time to reach beyond that. We'll be developing a series of other structures at the broadest levels, and encouraging local Storytellers to develop local structures to enhance the kinds of games they want. The OOC tool for this local development is the VSS, and the VSS should be specific about what the game is like. An outside player should be able to read the VSS and know what things are most important, least important, and actively discouraged in a given game. The themes for the first year relate to that. We want to promote Clan identity and city identity beyond simple Status. Loners can exist, but they will face an uphill battle. We'll be asking the rules team to work on ideas that benefit those who group together for association, benefit those who group together for mechanical effectiveness to a lesser extent, and give little to no reward to loners. It's a social game, and interaction is encouraged. Rules changes create changes in player behavior, so we will adapt the rules to benefit the behavior that makes game more enjoyable. For the first year, this means interaction and getting involved. One of the areas we'll be looking at is Humanity. A key theme in Requiem is the nearly-inevitable slide towards the Beast. Those who have frequent and close association will have an easier time keeping their Humanity intact, while loners and hermits will not gain those benefits. The themes for this aspect are companionship as salvation and the importance of family (Clans, Bloodlines, and lineages). The second major area we'll be looking at is social mobility. The system will be structured to allow mobility, both up and down, in a fairly rapid fashion. A PC should be able to approach the peak of the social structure in at least one organization with dedicated effort over several months. The first year will be the most active time for gaining and losing Status, forming or refining alliances, developing the core norms of Clans, Bloodlines, and lineages, and so on. The theme for this aspect is developing the world and laying foundations. B. Year Two: May 2014 to Apr 2015- Fear of Falling By the end of year one, we'd like most players to be comfortable, if not entirely satisfied, with their position in the world. A significant minority, though, should still be looking to move up. Year Two will limit the positions at the top a bit more, forcing some conflict for who stays at the peak. Perhaps there were initially five PC's at the top of the organization, but now the structure is tightening, and there will be only four slots at the top. Who loses out? At least one will fall, and it's likely that two of the five will change, as someone from below seeks to move up. Not every PC will lose out or advance- but every PC should be thinking about how to keep what they have and get more. If not, then someone more ambitious (PC or NPC) will do so. As part of this year, ST's will be encouraged to develop NPC's with depth on par with PC's, and hire dedicated players to portray those NPC's to really challenge PC's. Any PC who is sure that his or her Status and position are secure should be carefully reviewed by the local ST, and very likely challenged by either a PC or NPC with similar (but not the same) style. It would be less than enjoyable for a social climber PC to be targeted by a physical combat NPC who simply plans to beat down the social climber; that does not add to the game. However, the local ST can encourage another social PC, or develop a social NPC, to challenge the social climber. Related skills are also very applicable; a social climber may fall from grace is a skilled investigative PC keeps uncovering the sources of trouble in the city, benefiting the residents by locating potential problems early enough for simple solutions. Year Two is about jockeying for position. Some of the themes involved include coming of age (innocent PC's should lose out unless they accept that vampires are cruel creatures; will they hold onto their decent behavior and lose their standing, or accept the pettiness that is the hallmark of vampire politics, and be rewarded for it?) and honor versus duty (when a superior throws an underling in the path of danger to save themselves, does the underling take the hit for the team, placing duty and honor over advancement, or- far more commonly- does the underling dodge the danger and let the problem take their superior down a few pegs, which opens a slot for advancement?). C. Year Three: May 2015-Apr 2016- Changes The midpoint of our scheduled five-year story arc, changes begin to happen, not only within the structures, but to the structures. This gives a chance for the first two years to be an examination of the systems by the ST's and the players. Necessary or enjoyable big changes happen in Year Three. Structures can fall or be created, and existing ideas challenged at very basic levels. In short, if the first two years have gone off track in any way, this is the correction opportunity. On a more in-character level, the groups that were not fully organized before Chronicle start get their big break. Player-created groups that have prospered and proven themselves popular, effective, and good for the larger game will get their chance to grow to major factions. How they do so will be part of the theme for this year. Themes will include evolution versus revolution versus tradition in a three-way contest for the future of the Danse Macabre; power and corruption/hubris; and death and rebirth. Players who feel they have adequately explored certain concepts can turn over a new leaf, either with new PC's, or with notable changes to existing PC's during this year. PC's who did terrible things during Year Two to retain their positions and power should be open to receiving their comeuppance- or tightening their iron grasp on power. If we think of year one as "picking teams" for social competition, and year two as assigning characters to positions on the team, year three is the start of the competition in earnest, as the teams collide in the arena of vampiric society. D. Year Four: May 2016- Apr 2017- Can we win this thing? To continue the contest analogy, year four is post-halftime. The "winners" of year three are trying to keep what they've gained, and the "losers" are looking for a sign that they can turn things around. This will be the year of such signs. Prophecies and portents, used very little in the first three years, will become more prominent in year four. Those omens will serve as IC means for PC's to understand OOC changes that will happen. Rules will be created to channel competition. The game will become a little less "free play" sandbox-style (not so structured as Masquerade, with an extensive storyline and powerful NPC's like Justicars, though). The areas of competition that the players enjoy, as shown in the first three years, will become more clarified. If the players have demonstrated in the first three years that they really like the Invictus versus Carthians conflict, or the Lance versus Circle conflict, then the prophecies will reflect those. If the players have shown that they really enjoy the concept of the slide from Humanity to the Beast, then the portents will reinforce that. Year Four is the year of reformation after the changes in year three, helping to define the "new normal." Themes for year four include fate versus free will (can we change the future to something other than what the omens say? Can we, as players and PC's, break free from the conflicts we've shown the ST's we want and make the game go in a different direction?); the nature of progress, real or illusory (after year three, are we pretty much still in the same situation? Did the year of change in year three make any real difference?); and individualism versus security (Do I go along with the prophecy and take the easy way, or do my own thing?). We'll be asking the rules team to create benefits for those who align with the prophecy, generating challenges for those who want to go a different route. We will not make those benefits so overwhelming that it is impossible to take a different tack than the prophesied path, but it will be easier to "go with the flow" than to fight the current of fate. E. Year Five: Post-May 2017- Tragedy One idea to keep in mind: Year five may extend, and may even bridge to a longer Chronicle. We are planning for five years, but if, as of May 2017, the senior ST staff has clear signals from the players that the Chronicle should continue, then this plan in no way prevents that. No player should think "Well, we only have a few more months, so…" and then do something that is way out of character for their PC. Chronicle is not hard-fixed to end in five years. That is the plan, but plans can change. That said, year five is planned to be the year of the fall. The world is harsher. Where year two saw fewer social positions at the top, and generated social conflict to keep or attain those few positions, year five will make more basic success harder. Exactly how and why that happens will be determined by the players during the first four years, but things will get tough in year five, encouraging betrayal of one's closest friends. Blood may become scarce, with a set amount allotted by each local ST, and if there are fewer kindred around, then each one would get more… Contacts, allies, and retainers may be harder to keep as humans become more suspicious, so if you want to still have an effect in the mortal world, from the power of mortals (or care for them), from the shepherding of the human flock to chasing the dragon's tail… there will be fewer opportunities to interact with humans, creating conflict. No Dragon wants their experiment interfered with by a Lance trying to frighten a human back to goodness, and no Carthian wants her well-developed Ally to be unceremoniously Blood Bound and turned into an Invictus Retainer- but those are the kinds of things that will happen in year five. Themes include the heartbreak of betrayal (often foreshadowed in year four by prophecies of treason); temptation; and religion as virtue or hypocrisy. Power will go to those who are willing to be the most heartless, and we will ask the rules team to develop ways to reflect that. As year one was the development of bonds, year five is the shattering of those bonds. Trust, in year five, will be a rare and precious commodity, and if there are lots of large groups who all trust one another, then we're doing something wrong. Vampires are not heroes, not decent people, and not inclined to keep promises that put them at a disadvantage. Year five will make that blindingly obvious.